The rantings of a working mom of twins with a serious fiber addiction

knitting

Back in October, at the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat, I had purchased a shawl pattern called Winona designed by the lovely Brenda Castiel. I knew as soon as I had seen the sample that I wanted to knit it for my mom for Christmas. I ordered skeins of Miss Babs in Old Gold and Field Mouse and started knitting as soon as they arrived.

My girl likes to help with the pinning.

Blocking under the tree.

Slip stitch patterns are fun!

It was a really fun knit. There is something about slip stitch patterns that makes me really happy. Like turning the heel on a sock. It just feels nice.

While we are on the topic of what I did this Christmas…another good reason to pace myself is actually knitting jobs. They come around every once in awhile, and usually around the holidays.

This year I had a paid knitting job that was interesting and fun. A friend at work wanted a stocking in time for son’s first Christmas. The catch was to try to match it to her and her husbands existing stockings…which were machine knit, flat.

No problem.

It made good Saturday Morning diner knitting.

I charted out the pattern and adjusted it to knit in the round from the toe up. The only thing that really had me stumped was the cuff, which was ribbed in stockinette. I found out later, thanks to Courtney, that this is something that is achieved in machine knitting with weights. I decided to try and recreate it by slipping stitches in stockinette and blocking it out with straws. It gave it an interesting texture and I liked it more than if I would have stuck with standard 1×1 ribbing.

I try my best to get things done on time when I am gifting something, but I don’t always make it. Poor Juline gets my gifts late every year, but luckily, she celebrates her birthday pageant style.

Linen Stitch takes awhile.

I wanted to knit something bad, but had no real ideas in mind. I just grabbed some yarn and started knitting a linen stitch swatch, hoping it would serendipitously figure out what it wanted to be.

Linen Stitch Pouch.

It did.

An up close view. I really like these buttons.

I am also a person who has an enormous craft stash. A lot of the time I will think “What could I make to go with this?” and I run to the supplies to see what I can put together. Since I designed jewelry in a former life, I have quite the stash of jewelry supplies just sitting around that are perfect for crafty gifts.

I also dipped into the jewelry making supplies.

I also sent some amazing soap from a soap maker that sells at our local Farmer’s Market. I hope she likes it!

Thanksgiving was small this year. Just me and my husband and our kids. I invited my friend Ashley over because her husband was out of town for work and I don’t think people should be alone during the holidays.

Luckily, my husband loves me a lot and knew I was way too busy to get any actual holiday planning done, so he ordered Thanksgiving dinner this year!

Thumbs up!

Dinner was a success!

After dinner and dessert, Ashley brought out some of her knitting that needed a little TLC. Not too long ago she had a (gasp!)…moth problem, but she also had a shawl that had a burn. Of course, about the time I was going to Google “darning”, the internet took a dump. I had to wing it.

Now that I am moving full steam ahead on various Work/Birthday/Christmas/Celebration-type projects, I am finding I have very little time to work on anything for myself. I have been wanting to start the Leftie for awhile now, but haven’t had much time to do so. I still don’t really have time to work on it, but at least I started *something*. It’s a garter stitch project, so it makes for some mindless knitting…and it is still small enough to fit in my purse.

Finally, I am getting around to starting the Leftie.

I could have done a stash dive for yarn for this one, but once I saw that Madelinetosh was selling Unicorn Tails, I decided I would just go ahead and buy the yarn. Yeah…I really had to have my arm twisted. I mean…look!

Hopefully I will get some more downtime to work on this soon. Thanksgiving is coming and I don’t have to cook this year. A holiday weekend to catch up on crafts…Hooray!

Have I ever mentioned how much I like small projects? I actually feel like I am accomplishing something. Good thing too since most of my knitting projects have pretty much been cast to the side for all the rest of the stuff I am trying out.

This is a special hat though. My mom had mentioned that she knew a woman through one of her scrapbooking sites who had a little girl that just had a brain tumor removed. Her name is Rori and this hat is hers.

I was sitting in our editor’s office here at work not too long ago when I got a message from Rori’s mom saying that they had just received the hat and sent me a picture of her wearing it. It totally made my day.

Funny how the internet can bring people together.

If you’re interested in this hat pattern, it is Hermione’s Cable and Eyelet Hat and you can find it here.

I keep trying to sneak a little knitting in here and there. It seems like this project is taking forever, but I am spending time on a whole bunch of different projects right now… and honestly, I’m not in any hurry to get it done.

Ahhh…..

I worked on it a lot when I was visiting my family in Detroit. Looking at this picture does make me wish I could’ve stayed longer.

Since I have had some serious project ADD lately, I have been moving slow in getting any real knitting done. It’s okay though…I am in no hurry. I have other projects that I really should be working on anyway.

Big Al, from both sides.

Big Al is my first attempt at double knitting. I really like the idea of having my knitting be reversible. I wasn’t so sure how he would turn out at first, but now that I am starting to see the design emerge, I am getting really excited about it. The best part…the Double Knit Kraken Cowl pattern is super easy. I think it’s a great pattern for anyone who would like to give double knitting a try.

I swear my life is all about Fandom and Fiber Art lately. I just finished a type of fan art project (more on that later)…I’ve been asked to be in a themed art show (more on that later too)…and then out of the blue, I start getting a barrage of texts.

Turns out a few of my Fannibal friends went to an Emmy screening of Hannibal (Episode 213:Mizumono) last week in Hollywood. They didn’t get in, but they had a lot of fun outside the event. Remember this?

The Hannibal Lecter Playset.

Well, my friend Ashley decided to take it with her to the Hannibal Screening.

And when my phone blew up…these were the pictures I was receiving…

Mimi Mochi Will Graham and the real Will Graham.

Alana Bloom with Mini Mochi Alana Bloom.

Ash with Hugh Dancy. Apparently, Bryan Fuller took this picture for her.

Caroline Dhavernas with Ash.

She also told me that Bryan Fuller got to see all 4 of them. Kinda cool!